Wichita eagle., 1887-06-01
UNDERSIZED HORSES.
WHAT FRENCH CAVALRY OFFICERS
THOUGHT OF OUR HORSES.

Good and Bad Qualities of an American
Turn Out-Breeding for Speed, Regard
less of Beauty or Endurance-Ihe
American Cob Waiting.
The turn out (.'team" is beneath and equip
age" above the subject, most characteristic
of an American city or town consists OF an
| understood horse, harnessed to a spindling,
Gside bar wagon, and driven by self con-
| fident person, holding, in all probability, a
big cigar in his mouth. Besides being small,
the steed is commonly waspish about the
waist, glove necked and narrow chested.
Moreover, be is apt to have a coarse head and
coarse ears, and it is almost certain that be
cannot be driven fast in safety to himsel!
without wearing more or less varied assort-
ment of "boots" upon his legs. Not seldom
also he carries heavy shoes or toe weights on
his fore feet, to keep him steady and level in
his gait, and these membranes unfit him
for long drive.
HIS GOOD QUALITIES.
His good points are chiefly powerful mus
cles, especially in his long and vigorous hind
legs, which give him a capacity for great
speed over short distance, and as rule be
is intelligent. At first sight he would strike
any horseman unaccustomed to the breed as
an ugly, misshapen little beast, and this ap-
pearance is intensified by the overdraw check
which pulls up his head and points his nose
straight outward, thus depriving his neck OF
whatever slight curve it may have had by
nature. Three years ago commission OF
cavalry officers was sent to this country by
the French government to investigate the
character Of our horses, perhaps with view
to importation for the use Of their army. In
the elaborate report which their officers made,
although they spoke very highly Of our
Houyhnhnms in general, and declared that
one, member Of the Mambrino family, was
the most beautiful horse they had ever seen,
yet they were much impressed by the under.
sized and defective animals just described,
and they condemned them in vigorous terms
These trotting machines, as they may be
called, are the result of breeding entirely FOL
speed, regardless Of beauty or of endurance.
People in the middle and eastern states, al
least, have almost forgotten that horse
ought to be round bodied, that his neck
should be curved, his head small, his ears well
cut, his nostriis full and his chest broad. Oh
late years and within O small circle, the pop
ularity of the cob has done something to i'm
prove what might be described as the horse OF
daily life. 1t is hardly necessary to say thai
by "cob" is meant, not an animal Of any par
ticular breed, but horse of round, chunky
solid pattern, somewhat short in the legs ant
neck 1t is very indefinite term, and cobs
are of all sizes and of considerable variety in
shape. The ordinary cob, though not bril-
liant, is a very respectable beast, and if mod
erately well turned and properly curtailed
he is reckoned extremely genteel In Eng
land he has long been a favorite, both fol
saddle and harness. Readers of English
novels will remember that bishop invariably
rides upon a cob In some old verses quaint
writer enumerates the possessions that he
thinks would secure his happiness, including
among them, and not without reason,
An Arabic book to read, Norfolk cob to ride,
a house to live in shaded with trees, and near q